Hey, we'll get started. Thank you for coming. We're going to talk afterwards about if someone wants to tell us how you think we should have this chair set up any better. They'll do whatever we want as far as getting plenty of room to get this chair set up. We just got to tell them what we want. Thank you for being here. Tony wanted me to remind you there is an elevator if you need to use an elevator to get up here. That is available. Anything else? Any other announcements we want to have? Thank you for being here. We are in Acts chapter 18 and we're going to be covering a lot of ground tonight. At least I would hope we are. We'll see what happens. I'm going to pray and then we'll go ahead and get started. Father, we come to you tonight in the name of Jesus. We do thank you for the chance to be here. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the people that are here to hear and study your word. We ask that you may open our hearts, that your spirit would move among us, that we may hear these things and apply them to our lives. That they be more than just academic information, but it would be something that would change our lives, and in turn, something that would change the world. Again, we thank you for the chance to be here, and ask that you continue to move through us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, we are in Acts chapter 18. We're going to be talking about corn. But I'm also going to ask that you open your framework books up first, because I want to kind of go through the notes on this, I believe. And here's where we've been. We are on Paul's second missionary journey. Remember the first missionary journey? This is Jerusalem. This is a bad map. It's just a visual representation. This is the Mediterranean Sea. It's not even proportional, so it makes me frustrated even as I look at it. But this is Jerusalem, Antioch. On his first missionary journey, they came from Cyprus, went up here into Galatia area, and came back down home into Antioch. That was their first missionary trip. The second missionary trip, Paul and Barnabas split. Paul comes up here, goes through this area, and ends up over here in a place called Troas, ancient Troy. He sails across and ends up in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. And we know the situations he had in each of those places. In Philippi, he was put in prison. In Thessalonica, they had a riot, chased him out of town. He goes to Berea. They search the scriptures to make sure that he was doing things correctly. But Thessalonians followed him down, and at night they put Paul on a ship and sailed him down to Athens, down in here. He spent some time in Athens, came in basically in a sense, had no job, had no support, he's on his own, and worked his way from the streets into the Arapagus, the center of philosophy, and even had a couple of converts, including one person that was a member of the council there. From there he goes over to Corinth. And this is where we find him here tonight in the city of Corinth. And from the city of Corinth, he's going to write letters back to Macedonia, Thessalonica. This would be the land of Macedonia here. This would be the land of Greece. This is called Achaia, with Corinth in Achaia. He writes first and second Thessalonians from Corinth back up here. And we talked about that last week. And now we're going to continue to talk about what takes place in Corinth. But what I'd like to do is go through the notes here in the book, kind of show you what we're going to be talking about. So I think we want to be on page 240. And on page 240 at the top, you've got a better map that shows you the same path that we were traveling. You can pick up right there in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and coming down to Corinth. In the year 50, that was when this missionary trip took place, when he was in Troas, we talked about those things. 51 is when Silas and Timothy stay back here up in Macedonia and they bring a report and a letter from the Thessalonians down and Paul writes 1 Thessalonians and eventually 2 Thessalonians. That's in 51 AD. Paul stays in Corinth. We're going to pick this up here in 51 AD. Galleo, the Roman proconsul, is going to make a major decision in Corinth. That's kind of one of the things we'll see tonight. Now understand, Galleo was in Corinth as the Roman proconsul from 41 to 52 AD. And so Paul's time there, if he arrives around 51 AD, he was going to be right at the end of Galleo's jurisdiction. And Galleo, remember, we talked about last week, in Rome, Claudius, Nero's father, has expelled all the Jews from Rome. He's got frustrated with them. When he became emperor, right around, say, 41, A.D., he would not allow the Jews to meet, to follow their religion any longer. But by this time, by around 49, he's expelled them, and so that's how Aquila and Priscilla end up in Corinth. Now they're going to trickle back in, they're going to resume, because Claudius is not going to be emperor much longer, and so the Jews will return, that's where they pick up in the Roman Church. But nonetheless, the emperor has expelled the Jews, and so there is some kind of persecution against the Jews for their rioting, again we see that in the writings of the historians, over a man named Crestus, which is really a misspelling of the name Christ, or the Messiah, the Christos. It's over here in Rome, there's been some commotion between the synagogue people who want to hold to the Jewish tradition, and the new teaching that Jesus is the Christ, or the Christus, and it split, and it got so confusing they just drove them out. So because of that persecution, remember that persecution thing going on in Rome, of driving the Jews out, when Galileo makes his decision here in Corinth today, when we talk about this in 51 AD, he's got complete, the empire supports him on how he treats the Jews in this situation right here. And it's going to be a good decision for the Christians, but of course continues some bad news for the Jews. But remember, when he makes his decision, when we read about Galileo tonight, and how he treats the Jews in Corinth, it's like, oh, what's going to happen now? Nothing, because they've already been kicked out of Rome itself. Okay, so turn the page to page 241. The year is 52 AD here. Paul writes 2 Thessalonians from the city of Corinth. During this year, Paul is going to leave Corinth in the spring and head for Ephesus. Again, this map is kind of messed up, but this is Ephesus over here. He's going to sail from Corinth and head to Ephesus and he's going to meet there in the synagogue for a while, we'll talk about that, not very long. He's going to leave Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus and Paul is going to sail down, well actually he's going to sail to Caesarea, visit Jerusalem and head back to Antioch. What's going to be interesting tonight is when somehow during this time in Corinth it appears Paul, now this will help just open your eyes to some thinking here, Paul appears to have taken a Nazarite vow out of the book of Numbers where he dedicates those. He's not a Nazarite by birth, he's not a Nazarite as far as profession, but any Jewish person could take a Nazarite vow for a period of 30 days or a week or a year, whatever they would distinguish, I'm going to dedicate myself to the Lord for this period of time. One of the things they would do, they would let their hair grow, like Samson. And Paul appears to leave his hair grow, maybe not that long, it was like he had a ponytail or anything, maybe he did. But it appears to be maybe a month, maybe a few months, something takes place in Corinth where he makes a dedication of vow to God, a Nazarite vow, and on his way through here he's going to have his hair cut and offered in the temple along with an offering as thanks to God for being with him. Maybe because of this terrible time that he's gone through here. He takes a Nazarite vow. It's just interesting that Paul hasn't separated himself from Judaism. Well, he's not going to do that anymore. He is a Jew. He follows the law in many cases, but he realizes that's not the means of salvation. But anyway, we'll keep that in mind. But on this trip here, he's going to come down to Jerusalem, to Caesarea, have his Nazarite vow fulfilled here, return to Antioch, and is back on the road for his third missionary trip, probably within a year of leaving Corinth. I mean, it's not like he comes to Antioch and spends five years there. He just kind of passes through these places, visits the churches, and is now on his third missionary journey. That all takes place, in fact, all those things I said right there takes place in 52 AD. 53 AD, Paul spends time in Antioch, like we just said there. He begins his third missionary journey. He's going to go through Galatia, Phrygia, and end up in Ephesus where he's going to spend three years. The first part of his ministry there, maybe the first year, first few months, he's going to be in a synagogue and moving around, but eventually he's going to leave and begin meeting in a lecture hall, and will meet there every day for two years. Every day in a lecture hall, and we're in the year 53 AD. In Ephesus, when he begins his trip, Akul and Priscilla are there with Apollos, and they send Apollos over to Corinth. Apollos, you've met him or talked about him before, he appears to be a very good speaker, a trained speaker, elegant in the Grecian style. He comes from a place called, if we were to continue this down here like this, Alexandria, Egypt, which was one of the seats of Jewish philosophy and Jewish teaching, and he ends up here in Ephesus and is sent over here to Corinth And you can even remember that from the book of Corinthians, where Paul was dealing with the great, wise speakers that had a great stage presentation. Apollos appears to be one of them. One thing that is lacking, as we know from the scriptures, is when he meets Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus, they kind of catch him up on his theology. He's a great speaker. They say he speaks accurately, but he has some things missing. They get him all caught up, and he heads over to Corinth to fix some problems in Corinth. And we talk about that more when we get into Corinthians. Anyway, 53, Paul arrives in Ephesus, spends three years. From Ephesus, we'll turn the page, go to page 242. Now the year is around 55 AD. Now, while he is in Ephesus, he's going to be here for three years. During this time period, the Corinthian church is imploding, exploding, falling apart, having whatever kind of conflicts you can possibly have in a church. Corinth is coming up with them. And I guess we're glad about it because it is just a happy church having potlucks and great Sunday school sessions. We never have any letters to them. But Paul ends up writing, and he's going to write four letters to the Corinthians. Now, you say, well, we've only got two of them. Indeed, we've only got two of them. We have, apparently, second and fourth Corinthians. We call them first and second. Now, this is not like crazy teaching. This is pretty basic, okay? What? What? Well, I got all the references here and we're not going to go look all these things up now, but for example, I'll just read the notes here. On top of page 242 of the year 55, Paul writes his first of four letters to the Corinthians, which is not 1 Corinthians. It is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 9. Again, you can look that up, you can look it up now if you want to, but you can wait also. But in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 9, Paul refers to a letter that he sent to them. when he writes what we call 1 Corinthians. They've already received a letter from Paul while he's in Ephesus. He sends a letter over to them. And in this letter, Paul instructs them to collect money for the Jerusalem saints. One of the things that Paul had seen at the end of his second missionary trip down here in Jerusalem when he was fulfilling his Nazarite vow, he sees the poverty of the Jerusalem saints. because of the persecution, because of the famine, maybe because of their policy of socialism where they all had everything equal. You remember that earlier in Acts? I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. But nonetheless, they've got this, they're falling apart financially. So Paul, one of the things he's doing is collecting money on this missionary trip to bring it back to Jerusalem. And he will fulfill that promise and that commitment in bringing the money back. Anyway, that's one thing that's mentioned in the letters. After this first letter, a delegation from Chloe's house in Corinth, they come across and meet with Paul in Ephesus. And now you have the beginning of 1 Corinthians. Some from Chloe's house come over and they say, well, here's our problem. And they have a list of questions, just like the Thessalonians asking questions when he was in Corinth. Now the Corinthians are asking Paul questions when he's in Ephesus. And you can read through there, he writes the book of Corinthians just like that. Considering this, or concerning this, and he talks about it. Then concerning this, and he writes about it. Answering all of their questions. Then he adds some things to it, gives it back to them, and sends it back to Corinth. Now, that's what takes place there in 55 AD, where we got that third bullet point in that list. Paul follows this letter with a quick visit. Now, this is something that's not mentioned in Acts, but according to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, after that first letter, Paul was so concerned about how that letter was going to be received, and you can imagine that. You've sent email before, right? You type the email, then you send it, and then you sit and worry. Okay? Or is that just me? Okay. And he sends it. Well, he writes this letter, you know, 1 Corinthians, and sends it, and then it's like, wait. It's going to be a long time, because they're just getting on the ship, and they sail across, and wonder what's going on. So Paul can't take it any longer, just sails over here, checks on it, and comes back. It's not mentioned in Acts, but Paul does refer to it. He says, a quick visit. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, that you still liked me. And again, that's the fourth bullet point. Paul follows this letter with a quick visit directly across the Aegean Sea from Ephesus to Corinth and back, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 1. This would have been his second visit to Corinth, but it's not recorded in Acts. Then Paul writes a third letter to Corinth from Ephesus, which we do not have. Titus then carries this letter and stays to fix the church. Whenever Titus shows up, you know there's a problem. This is like Wyatt Earp or somebody showing up. When he shows up, it's like, OK, it's showtime. We're done messing around. Titus is coming to town. And Paul writes what we would call, well, we don't even call it anything. It's the third letter. We don't have a copy of it. And he sends it with Titus over here. and he doesn't hear back. And this is in 2 Corinthians, when Paul talks about this scenario, he becomes so concerned about Titus, I mean, it appears, and again I don't want to over speak, but it appears this way, and other people will say the same thing in the commentaries, it appears that he was concerned about Titus' safety. He was worried, he said, I don't know what happened to Titus. And so out of fear, Paul leaves Ephesus, and we'll pick that up today when he leaves Ephesus, he is heading towards Corinth to see if Titus got killed or something. What happened to Titus? And on his way up through Macedonia, Troaz up through Macedonia, heading down, guess what? In Macedonia, in one of these towns here, he just says Macedonia, he meets Titus. Titus was on his way back. Things are fixed. Problem solved. And so now from Macedonia, Paul writes what we call 2 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians, which is actually 4 Corinthians. Do you understand what I said? I'll review that very quickly. Paul is in Ephesus. He writes a letter to the Corinthian church. They receive the letter. They send a delegation from Chloe's house with some information and some questions. Paul responds to the people there and sends 2 Corinthians or the second letter which we call 1 Corinthians. After he sends that letter, he is concerned about it. He follows over a quick visit and comes back. He then writes, the third letter to Corinth, which we don't have, gives it to Titus, who brings it to the Corinthian church, and Paul worries, worries, worries, and finally, at the end of his time in Ephesus, after about three years, he leaves to come down to the Corinthian church, but meets Titus, who's on his way to meet Paul. He talks about that in 2 Corinthians. And then from this place, he writes what we call 2 Corinthians, and says, thank God, we've got this worked out. And Paul then follows this with a quick visit to Corinth, and from Corinth right here, he even mentions it, we'll see it in the book of Acts tonight, he even mentions it, From here, Paul writes maybe his most important letter. He writes it to the Church of Rome and says, I want to come visit you. And he sends it with a lady named Phoebe, who is a deaconess from the Church of Centria, which is a seaport city right here on this isthmus. That's a little thing of water coming in right here. The city right here. She is a deaconess of this church and for some reason he gives it to Phoebe who travels with a delegation of Christians to Rome and delivers the letter to the Church of Romans. And Paul's basically just giving him his resume saying this is what I believe. I want to come visit your church. And he says very specifically in the letter, so that I may visit you and you may send me on my way to Spain. He wants to bounce from here, from Corinth, into Rome, take up an offering, and go from there to stay with the Gospel. Now, when he gets done here in Corinth, he's going to head back to, actually, he's going to go, here's Corinth, he's actually planning on going to Centuria and then leaving for Jerusalem, but we're going to read tonight, word comes out that they have an assassination plot for Paul, so he sends his ministry team this way, and they go to Troas, but Paul goes by land up through Macedonia and catches up with his ministry team in Troas, missing that whole assassination plot, stops by Ephesus where we have a great session with the Ephesian leaders, the elders, which we'll hopefully get to tonight. Doesn't sound like it. And then he's going to go down through here and end up in Jerusalem of where he thinks he's going to get a chance to preach to the Jews. And we'll study this. He's being told several times by the Spirit of God Don't go here. You stay where you're at. You head to Rome. And it appears, Paul, you've got to make a decision. Some people don't like this. Was the Spirit just telling Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, you're going to have difficulties. You'll be put in chains. So go your way, young man. Or was the Spirit saying, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem, because if you go, you're just going to end up in prison, and we're going to put you in chains. And Paul actually spends the next five years of his ministry in prison, because the Spirit told him, if you go there, you'll be put in chains. Now, you've got to decide how you want to view the Scriptures. You can preach it either way. The Spirit just warning Paul, you have persecution coming. Or the Spirit telling him, fool, don't go down here. This is not where I want you. I want you with the Gentiles. And Paul goes anyhow. And then he writes from prison to the Philippians, he writes, forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward to the things that God has called me for. In other words, he writes, there's something I want to forget because I've messed up. And again, you can decide what you want to do with that. That's where we're heading tonight. So we are in Corinthians, right now, or in the book of Acts. We are in chapter 18 of Acts, reading about the church of Corinth, and we're going to read through some of the things we read through last week and kind of build up steam and get going through this. I've got great, great hopes tonight of how far we're going to get, but I see it's already almost 20 after. I live in an imaginary world. Chapter 18, verse 1. After this, Paul left Athens, remember this was in Arabicus. He leaves Athens and went to Corinth. Remember we read in Corinthians last week where he came with great fear and trembling because he's kind of alone, kind of walking into a dangerous area, a very immoral city, the city of Corinth. It's a seaport city. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius, Nero's dad, had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome right around 49 AD. Paul went to see them and because he was a tent maker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Again, it was an understanding of the rabbi tradition that a rabbi would pay his own way. The Jews got to a place where they didn't like someone just making a living off teaching and being a scholar. In fact, they guaranteed it. If you're making a living off teaching as a scholar, you will be corrupt. You cannot function that way. I've got some quotes here in my Bible where they say that, so use that for whatever you think. But nonetheless, Paul was trained. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tent maker, he stayed there and worked with them. And remember, we said that was a leather worker. There are some games taking place right here at this time, getting ready to make, and visitors will be coming to Corinth for these Isthmus games. I don't know if that's what they're called. It was in 51 A.D. and it would be overrun with people and visitors and so the tents that they may have been making out of leather would have been sold and used very rarely. It may have been a hot time in the market for tent making, nonetheless. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade the Jews and the Greeks. Again, notice there's Gentiles in the synagogue. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. It appears then that some money came, and Paul refers to it later. So he could stop making tents and actually get to work teaching the Word of God. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. The whole idea of your blood be on your own head, that comes right out of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was told, the watchman, it's his responsibility to make the announcement. And if the people want to rebel against it, well, that's fine. Just let them know, you're on your own from now on. And so the shaking out of their clothes is something Jesus even referred to as shaking out of the sandals. Nehemiah happens in the book of Nehemiah where they shake out their clothes, get the dust off. It's an insult. I'm done with you. And then, to say your blood be on your own heads is actually drawing out of Ezekiel saying you are now in a place of judgment. When Silas and Timothy, ok we're now clear of my responsibility, verse 7. Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titus Justice, a worshipper of God. Now, I want to talk about these names a little bit. Right next to the synagogue was a house of a Gentile, and his name here is Titus Justice. If we go to the book of Romans, we're going to see there that when he writes to them, that he says they're meeting in the house of Gaius. Which would probably mean the three names of Titus Justice would be Titus, Gaius, Justice. We'll talk about that here in a moment. If they had three names, just like Paul had Paulus, Silas, Paulus, Saulus, Benjamus. They'd have those three names, that would probably be his name. He's called Gaius, that would be his personal name. Here he's called Titus Justice. He's the general of the synagogue. But also, Christus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household would believe the Lord, and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. And so now you've got a huge split in the synagogue of going next door to a Gentile's house to have church service, including the synagogue leader. Now, keep this in mind right here. I'm going to show you several things here. We're going to come back to Acts chapter 18. First of all, remember these names. Titus, Justice, which I'm telling you is probably Gaius. And Christus, the synagogue leader. Now go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We looked at it last week. I believe, but I want to point this out to you. Remember, Paul baptized two people, or he baptized two groups of people. Then he said, oh yeah, I remember I baptized Stephans too, his household. I want you to remember, Gaius and Crispus were in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14. I just want you to notice that these two men mentioned in Acts are the two men that Paul mentions to the Corinthians as being the only people he really baptized. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14. Paul says, I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you Corinthians, so I'm the Corinthians, except Christus, now who's he? He's the synagogue leader, and Gaius, which I'm telling you at least potentially is a strong evidence, Titus, Gaius, Justus, the Gentile next door. So he baptized the synagogue leader and the Gentile next door, then he goes on and says also I baptized Stephanus. Go back to the book of Romans, Romans is just a page or two back, Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16, we'll look at chapter 16 verse 1. Now remember, we've referred to this earlier. On his second missionary journey that he's on, he's going to end up in Corinth after having read the second Corinthians. And from Corinth, he's going to write to the Romans. So he's in Corinth when he writes this book of Romans right here. And then just look at chapter 16 verse 1. This is now his last chapter, and again, the Book of Romans, we'll talk about it when we get here, but this is basically a reference letter. He's basically giving a list of all the people that you can check his credentials. Some people know him from Asia Minor, some people know him from Jerusalem, some people in this list are relatives. He says, these are the people who know me, say hi to them. He doesn't say, these are my reference letters, here's their phone numbers, ask them, they'll send a letter. He basically says, hey, say hi to him for me. Which means, oh, you know these people? Well then what are you going to do? You're going to go check? You're going to go ask? You don't really know Paul. So again, it's just a huge list. But notice chapter 16, verse 1. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church of Centuria, which is at Seaport City, right by Corinth. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me." And it would be apparent, that's why she's mentioned there, she's the one carrying the letter and handing it to him. And there's a delegation that comes along with her. Continue to read, you see, greet Priscilla and Aquila. Now we find out Priscilla and Aquila, by this time, they've gone from Corinth to Ephesus, and now they're in Rome. He says, greet them, there's a good reference. I could read through all these lists, we'll talk about it later sometime, but I want to jump over to verse 21. Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings, so we know that Timothy is with Paul in Corinth, to you as does Lucius, Jason, who appears to be from Thessalonica, And Sosipater, who is also mentioned, he says, my relative, I Tertuit, Tertarius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. Is that not interesting? Now the guy who's writing, he just says, hey, I want to say hi to you. It's kind of like writing your name on a wall somewhere. He's writing his letter for Paul, and Paul's over there talking about, hey, I say hi too. And then notice this verse 23, Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here in Corinth enjoy, send you his greetings." So again, that I think is Titus Gaius Justus, who's the Gentile who lives next door to the synagogue, who Paul baptized, who's now, they say, and guess where Paul's at? He said, we're back in Gaia's now. He went back to the church of Corinth, we're still meeting him. You can imagine the sidewalk on Saturday and Sunday mornings. On Saturday mornings, all the Jews are going to the synagogue, and on Sunday morning, all the, they're walking on the same sidewalk, the Christians are going to Gaius's house, church. It could have been some conflicts there on the sidewalk. Just to mention this too, Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, now again, that would be a director of public works in Corinth, and our brother Quartus sends you their greetings. The reason I mention Erastus is he is mentioned in Acts 19 verse 22, he's going to come up tonight, his name is going to be mentioned, as traveling with Paul, And he's from Corinth, but this is pretty cool. You may like this. I wish I had a photo of it. I haven't taken my own photo, so if I use a photo of it, I've got to steal it from somebody, which is sometimes inappropriate. I can't put it in the book yet. Not that I'm not above that, but anyway, there's a stone that they have excavated from a road in Corinth that says this, you can read it, it says, you know, it's in Greek, but you can read it. It says this pavement was, purchased or paid for by Erasmus, who is in charge of the streets, which would most likely be this guy, who is a city employee, a city worker. They have uncovered Erasmus's name engraved in a stone from the pavement that he paid for in Corinth. from this same time period. So in other words, there's several correlations, several times they begin excavating these cities of Ephesus, Corinth, they find these names that start popping up and this one appears to be a direct, I mean it's almost undoubtedly the same person whose name is in the stone who helped pay for the city street, who is mentioned right here, who is the city's director of public works. I mean it's his job description, he's in charge of the roads and his name is written on one of the roads from the same time period. Nonetheless, that's interesting I think. Go back to Acts chapter 18 and we'll continue. I just want to show you some of those names that we're going to be just plowing through names in the book of Acts and at the end of letters. And they're all people that Paul has picked up or met in all these churches. When you think about Paul, you can't forget, if you want an image of Paul, you can't forget those last chapters of like 1 Corinthians or the last chapter of Romans where he has a huge list of names. How many people he knows from all around. This is the Gentile world. He's not even in any people he knows in... Everybody knows him in Jerusalem. And now he's gone into this other world over here in a matter of a few years. He's just picking... He's, you know, the master of networking, if you want to say it that way. Okay. Chapter 18. We're going back to Chapter 18. Paul is... We've just read about... They're going to Titus Justus' house, which I suggest is Gaius'. In verse 8, Christmas, the synagogue leader has gone... The synagogue ruler has left with him. And many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. Now verse 9. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city. So Paul stayed for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. So it appears he stayed about 18 months in Corinth teaching the people and there was no violence, there was no attack on him as he'd seen in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, fearful in Athens, coming into Corinth trying to find a job. Now we go to verse 12. Why Galeo was proconsul, again, this Galeo is not just a random name. He is mentioned by, I've got Tacitus, Pliny, Seneca, one of the great philosophers of the Romans, who was Galeo's brother, and then another historian. They all record Galeo. In fact, an inscription has been found in Delphi, which is just across the Isthmus there, up in Delphi, up in Greece there. They found an inscription naming the date that Galleo became the proconsul of Corinth. And that would be between 41 and 52 AD. So Galleo is from Rome. He was sent by the emperor to be the governor of this area. So what's about to take place is huge because he is not just a local judge or a local authority. He is sent from the emperor himself to have jurisdiction over this location. Which means his decision here is going to have a far-reaching effect. And what you have is a huge portion of history right here that's going to set the stage for Christianity for the next several years. Well, while Galileo was pro-consul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. So right after being said, there's not going to be any attack on you, there's a report of an attack. But watch out, it gets diffused. They made a united attack and brought him to court. They've now taken illegal action. The Jews who've, now remember, they've been kicked out of Rome because of their riotous behavior in their own synagogues over their Messiah. They're now living in, some of them are living in court, and they've got the audacity to take up their religion and take it into a Gentile court and bring Paul to court. Paul's on trial now and the Jews are accusing him. Verse 13, this man, they charge, is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law. Now, can you hear how a Roman could get really excited about that? It's like, he's teaching things that are contrary to the law. We don't agree with this. Now, the word law here, does this mean the law of Moses, which of course they do not care about, or is this the law of Rome, which now they're going to have to try and convince Galileo that Paul is teaching things that are against Roman law. Just as Paul was about to speak, so in other words, they had made their accusations, they had produced their evidence, they probably even quoted some scripture or something, tried to make some correlation with Roman law. Now it's Paul's turn for his defense. But his defense, he's not even going to need to defend himself. Galileo has already made his decision. You don't need to defend yourself, I've heard enough. Just as Paul was about to speak, Galeo said to the Jews, if you Jews are making a complaint about some misdemeanor or a serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. If you've got some kind of a parking violation or maybe some kind of a robbery, something serious, I guess it would be reasonable for me to continue listening to you ramble on. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law, so here it is, Words, now they're, you know, words. They're into some exegetical, scriptural, linguistics, trying to work their way through. Names. Well, whose names? Probably Christus, the Messiah. And your own law, the law of Moses, which I know they're committed to. Settle the matter yourselves. This has to do with your own exegetical studies, some prophecies and names of people, and your own mosaic law. Settle it yourself. I'm not going to waste my time. I will not be a judge of such things." So he had them ejected from the court, thrown out of court, and when the Jews were expelled from court, then they all turned on Sosinnes, the synagogue ruler. Now remember, the last time we heard about a synagogue ruler was Christmas, but he can't be the synagogue ruler. How come? Because he went over to the church. So Sosinnes, the guy mentioned here, who is also mentioned as traveling with Paul in 1 Corinthians 1. appears to have become the synagogue ruler. And so he was leading this attack against Paul and against his former boss, Crispus. And when the case is thrown out, the Romans begin to beat the Jews, starting the Sassanids there at the synagogue, the new synagogue ruler, beating him right there in court. Now, what do you think Galileo is going to do about this? Well, what would Claudius do about the emperor? He's just going to follow suit. the synagogue ruler, and beat him in front of the court. He didn't even get kicked out. They were getting beat right in the courtroom. But Galaitos already turned his back and walked out. But Galaitos showed no concern whatever. He pretended he didn't see and walked away. How can he do that? Because that's kind of what the emperor's done. You just get out of town. We're tired of your ridiculous arguments. Get out of town. And so he walks away from them. Okay. Paul stayed on in Corinth. Now again, that Solstice who gets beat Just humor me, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I think it's there. That synagogue ruler who just got beat in the court, who was coming against Paul. Now you want to see the power of God? Here's the power of God. This guy takes Paul to court over exegetical issues in the scriptures, over the law of Moses, over the names of the Messiah, or who was going to be the Messiah, and they throw him out of court. But by the time Paul writes 1 Corinthians from Ephesus, or it would be the second letter from Ephesus to the Corinthians, chapter 1 verse 1 of 1 Corinthians, Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sosthenes to the church of God in Corinth. In other words, he's got somebody with him there in Ephesus who's from Corinth, their brother, their former synagogue leader, his former, in a sense, persecutor, who's now on his side. What great evidence! He says, I, Paul, an apostle, me and My former persecutor, we're writing to you to straighten you out. And the Corinthians are having doubts about it. Paul really knows what he's talking about. He says, look, I've got all the synagogue leaders on my side. They keep coming over to my side. Anyway, it's interesting to see his name mentioned there again. Okay, we're going to go back to chapter 18 of Acts. Chapter 18, verse 18. Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. He's going to stay there for a full 18 months after the Lord spoke to him. Now it is the spring of 52 A.D. We are pretty sure this is what it is, especially in this time of year. Paul stayed in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria. What's in Syria? Antioch, Syria, that's his home church. Accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Centuria. Now again, remember where these places are at. Let's try to get something going here. We come up and here's Corinth, here's Centuria, here's Asia Minor, here we come down into Jerusalem down here, here's Syria with Antioch, this is Ephesus, this is Centuria. So he's going to sail through the seaport here and end up, he's going to sail over here, but he's going to go over to Ephesus where he's going to go into the synagogue with Aquila and Priscilla. So they're leaving with him, Aquila and Priscilla. He has his hair cut off here at Centurion, and he's going to carry it with him down to Jerusalem to fulfill the vow and dedication. It's just interesting to see Paul still worshipping and using the temple. Again, some people would go fanatic about that. But Paul, I mean, what do you expect? He's now preaching against, tear the temple down, stop going to the temple. He's telling the Gentiles, you don't need to go to the temple, you don't need to be circumcised. But the Jews, that's... That's their culture. That's how they study. That's their religion. That's how they come to God. That's how their scriptures are explained to them. You can kind of understand that, maybe. Some people say, absolutely not. I'm not advocating that we go rebuild the temple and start worshiping there. But for Paul and his lifestyle, that was appropriate, apparently. Nonetheless, it says, before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Centuria because of a vow he had taken. They arrived at Ephesus, unless you want to say he's going to the Temple of Artemis and going to worship there, but I don't think so. They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, in dialogue with the Jews. When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. He wanted to get to Jerusalem. But as he left, he promised, I will come back to Ephesus, if it is God's will. Then he set sail from Ephesus, when he landed in Caesarea, Caesarea is the great seaport city, built by Herod the Great, right here, occupied by Herod Agrippa, his grandson. landed in Caesarea. He went up and greeted the church. When it says he went up and greeted the church, that means this. He goes up and greets the church in Jerusalem, sees their condition, sees the church, and then went down to Antioch. Caesarea, Jerusalem, and Antioch. We know nothing about what takes place in Jerusalem. Luke records nothing. I would like to know more details, but of course that would just make the class longer. Chapter 18, verse 23. We're now going to begin the third journey. So we've just completed the second missionary journey. Second missionary journey through Asia Minor to Troas, through Macedonia, down to Corinth, and now after spending about a year and a half, maybe two years in Corinth, he sails in Ephesus, greets the synagogue, and comes down here, and we're done. He's written now, from 1st and 2nd Thessalonians up in here, and he hasn't written Romans yet. Okay, chapter 18, verse 23. After spending some time in Antioch, right over here, his home church, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia. This is Galatia. Up in here is Phrygia, from place to place. He'd probably go to Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, different place that he's been before. Maybe some of the places he was preaching on those silent five years. When he first got saved and just came up here into Cilicia, was up here preaching. Anyway, he goes to churches up in here. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, now remember, in Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla had been left behind in Ephesus, and they were teaching in the synagogues there. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, down here in Egypt, Alexandria, Egypt, it's the home of some very, very allegorical Bible teaching. The Jews had gotten very philo. The Greek Jewish philosopher did a lot of writing. really got this place allegorized in the sense that everything had a meaning. Like the number of men that Abraham took off into battle with him against Keteleaber, that meant something. It just didn't mean that was how many men, 315 or 318 men. It meant something. And so everything was allegorized. This is going to affect church history. Do not forget this. Alexandria became the seat of allegories. Everything's got to assemble. When the Christianity gets here, it's going to do the same thing. It's going to infest the interpretation of Scripture. And guys like Origen, which we've got volumes of what he wrote, we call him one of the Church Fathers, is going to write from that Greek position of allegorizing the Scriptures, trying to find truth in it, instead of just reading what it says. And we'll talk about it later. It's going to cause some major problems, I think, in the Church throughout the ages. That's where Apollos comes from. He comes up to Ephesus and there he's going to meet Aquila and Priscilla. He was a learned man, again, learned Greek philosophy, all the teaching of Alexandria, with a thorough knowledge of Scripture, also understood the Scriptures, or had a full understanding of the Jewish Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and spoke with great fervor, taught about Jesus accurately, Though he knew only the baptism of John. So he described Jesus up to the point of John's baptism, identified him as the Messiah, but that was it. He identified Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but what Jesus taught, what Jesus did, his death, his resurrection, the things that Paul had been teaching, no understanding of it yet. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue when Priscilla and Aquila heard him. Of course, he was a trained speaker. He'd be a professional speaker. He'd probably be on some kind of speaking tour going to the synagogue. Aquila and Priscilla came to his meeting and heard him speak. Wow, this guy's really good. But he's missing some of the details. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. Now, their teaching was probably, I don't want to belittle them, their teaching was probably just an infiltration or an application of the things that Paul had taught them. Again, they're not ignorant themselves, but they're probably bringing it up to date with Paul's revelations. Verse 27, when Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, that's over here, Achaia, Corinth, Centuria, The brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. They said, yes, you do great over there. They love your style. You have the Greek philosophy, you've got the Jewish background, and you've got the New Testament revelation. You'll do great in Corinth. And if you remember, when Paul writes 1 Corinthians, Apollo's name pops up because he had a huge following in Corinth. The Greek Corinthians loved the style of rhetoric, the speaking style, and he had that. They encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by the grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." So again, part of their problem was still the Jews trying to redirect the teaching about Jesus Christ. And Apollos argued through Scripture and brought them back to the truth just like we've seen Stephen do and Paul do. earlier. Now again, while that's taking place, Paul is traveling through the interior here, Galatia, Phrygia, and is on his way to Ephesus, and so we begin chapter 19, we're heading towards Ephesus. While Paul was in Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Well, they're disciples, they're followers. Well, so he asked, did you receive the Holy Spirit? Again, remember, when the Holy Spirit comes on the Gentiles, it was an amazing thing. Because, again, there's the flow of some kind of manifestation. Well, they answered, no, we have not even heard there is the Holy Spirit. Now, this is just interesting verses. So, Paul asked, then what baptism did you receive? I thought you said you were baptized, that you were a follower. Well, yeah, we've been baptized. He said, well, what baptism was it? They say, John's baptism. Now, here's the whole baptism debate. This is very interesting, because John's baptism, what John was doing with baptism, was not the same thing the apostles were doing with baptism on the day of Pentecost. Remember, they were baptized in the name of Jesus, but wasn't John doing that already? Well, no, John was baptizing for repentance, and he was picking up a Jewish practice of cleansing with water. We could talk all about baptism, of course, we've mentioned that before. The Jews were always dipping in water. So this is not like a new idea. So they've been baptized. They say John's baptism, verse 4, Paul says, Well, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, just like on the Day of Pentecost. Baptized in the name of Jesus, meaning we're now identifying ourselves with Jesus. When Paul places hands on them, which appears to have taken place after the bath, they're dunked in the water, they come out, Paul lays his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. So now what you have here, you've got people who are prepared for the coming Messiah, they understand that Jesus is the Messiah, they're baptized into his name, that means they believe, according to the doctrines in the book of Romans. If you're a believer in Christ, you have the Spirit already, So now they're baptized, they're believers, they come out, Paul lays hands on them, the Spirit comes, and now they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy, or begin to manifest some kind of a flow of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And so once again, a pattern we see in the book of Acts that Luke continues to point out. Jesus told the woman at the well about the well of living water in her own life, but later in John chapter 7 he talked about the rivers or streams of water which were identified as the Holy Spirit that would flow through the believer after Jesus was ascended. So that well of salvation And then the flow of the Spirit. Both are the Spirit. One for your salvation, the other is for service or ministry. Don't get all stretched out about tongues and prophecy, but just consider that a flow of the Spirit, which we all would agree with, I would think, that the Spirit of God is still moving through our lives. Forget if it's tongues or prophecy. We're not talking about that. We're talking about just the flow of the Spirit, that we're empowered by the Spirit for ministry. Not just to be saved, but to also go into the world in the power of the Spirit. But anyway, we see that there. There was about 12 men in all. Paul then entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months. Now, he's going to be in Ephesus for three years. Two years are going to be in the lecture hall. Here we mention the first three months he's in the synagogue. He always goes to the synagogue, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God, which would include Jesus Christ's coming, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and the future of the Kingdom of God that Jesus will be the Lord of, or the Messiah. But some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. They began to say things publicly, you know, putting up posters, protesting, saying bad things about the way, trying to, you know, spit it off so that they're even up. Paul's seen this before. So Paul left them. Shook the dust off his feet, doesn't say that here, just says he left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years. Now, let me read here, for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now, the province of Asia is this area right here, we can say generally. You've got cities like Philadelphia, Laodicea, Thyatira, the seven churches of John in Revelation. Like, for example, Paul's going to write to the church of Colossae. That has, again, I don't want to make a doctrinal statement or an adamant statement that you can't refute, but it would appear that the Church of Colossae was started from this time period spinning out from the city of Ephesus. So in other words, Paul's centered in Ephesus, but notice who's starting the churches. It's going to be the believers who are going out with a message. Paul is not running around like a madman starting all these churches. He may have visited them, I'm not sure, but he is preaching daily in the lecture hall in power. And I believe in this so much. This is what the Generation Word ministry is all about. is he's teaching the believers the truth, and the believers are responding to that with their different gifts, and you get this spiral effect of things. Paul's not running around changing the world. He's teaching and changing lives, and those lives of the believers are changing the world. When their lives are changing the truth, they spin off. He's not overseeing them, making sure they're all doing it right. The Word of God is changing them, which is changing the world around them. And it says right here, that's exciting stuff. That's exciting stuff, I think. It says, so that all the Jews and Greeks who live in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. I mean, he's in the lecture hall. How? They're not broadcasting it. It's not on the radio. It's not on TV. How is it going on? Because people are hearing it and spreading it out. They're not saying, hey, you've got to come hear Paul speak. They're doing it themselves, just like Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos. They didn't say, oh, hey, wait here. We'll go get Paul and he'll explain to you the right way. They say, Apollos will tell you. Now Apollos is over here. By the time Paul gets back to Corinth, Apollos is already speaking his message. Okay? Verse 11. During this time, God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. The word did is in the imperfect tense, which means this was a regular basis. This wasn't like, wow, one day something strange happened. Or every once in a while something strange would happen. This was in the imperfect tense, which means on a regular basis, God was doing extraordinary miracles here in Ephesus. So that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul, or it says him, touched Paul, were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Now handkerchiefs and aprons, the handkerchiefs could be like just cloth, face cloth that would be used to wipe off sweat. The aprons could be belts or could be tool belts. So what's taking place here, Paul is apparently going to work 7 o'clock in the morning, work until about 11, which they would have their break, their noon break, because it was time to eat and take a nap and relax during the heat of the day. Sometimes it would be up to four hours. And then they'd go back to work in the evenings when it cooled off. So Paul would work the early shift, would teach for as much as long as up to four hours. There's that much time span in there. And they would go back to work apparently. And these handkerchiefs and aprons are, you know, when you hear handkerchiefs, you think of, you know, ladies in an old church somewhere, you know, the little hankies. I remember when I was a kid, they'd always have little hankies and little bonnets and stuff. You know, you don't see it so much anymore. I remember my grandma carrying a little hankie with her all the time. I remember taking it from her and running around trying to get it from me. you know, a little brat, but nonetheless, they'll all be embroidered on the edges, little pink embroideries, you know? I mean, when you read it, I think that's what I think of, the ladies in little hankies, but you've got to think more with, and aprons, now you think about the lady in the kitchen, it's like, you've got a bunch of, you know, the ladies circle meeting Paul at lunch, you know, they've got aprons and hankies and they're making biscuits or something. Maybe the words tend to sound more like face cloths that you have with you when you wipe your face off when you're sweating, and tool belts that you're having, all of your leather working tools that you wear, and when you come in and you're ready to eat lunch, you set them down, you set down all your stuff you're working with, and you listen to Paul, and if he got close to those things that were with the men, okay now we're talking about men coming and listening to Paul preach at noon, not the ladies circle, although I'm sure they were invited, Then you get these extraordinary miracles taking place. I guess the message there is God doesn't move through ladies hankies, he works through sweat cloth. I'm just saying, you can really go off track real quick if you don't understand a little bit. So these are men taking a lunch break apparently. and great miracles are taking place. Well, anyway, we're in Ephesus and we haven't talked about it, but the Temple of Artemis is there, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It had, I don't know, 130, it's in your Bible somewhere, you've got those Bible notes at the bottom, it's down here somewhere, probably described it. They had like 130 pillars. Some of them are still standing. They were no more than four feet apart. So there was a magnificent temple to Artemis or Diana here. And people would come to visit, to worship here. At that time, Ephesus was like a seaport. It was like a harbor. You could settle right into Ephesus. Today, that river, that harbor, is filled in with silt. So it's no longer a seaport city. A lot of things will be taking place in there. A lot of traveling, travelers, a lot of visitors, a lot of business, a lot of demonic activity. It looks like God is up for the challenge here. Verse 13, some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. Now remember Jesus talking about it in Matthew, what, Matthew chapter 12? Matthew chapter 12, I think, where he's talking about, they're accusing him of being Beelzebub and casting out demons by Beelzebub, and he says, well, if I do it by saints' power, then whose power do your sons do it? And he's talking to the leaders there. Who was he talking to? He was just saying, in other words, there was a group of people that Jesus was addressing in Jerusalem that were casting out demons, some kind of exorcism. When he says, your sons, is he just talking a general term? Your sons, the sons of the Jews? Or was he talking about some people that were there, possibly like the priest who had sons who had gone off and were making money dabbling in witchcraft? Well, nonetheless, Jesus appears to have referred to this. Maybe there's a connection, maybe there's not. But notice right here. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say in their incantations, and we still have recordings of these written in different inscriptions of what they would say, and in this case, here's one in the Book of Acts, in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. That was part of their incantation, and they're supposed to get a reaction from the demon. They'd light candles, they'd have a little prayer time or whatever they do with this witchcraft. Verse 14, seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. You can't make a direct connection, but you wonder when she says, then by whom do your sons cast them out? Was he talking to Sceva, a chief priest in Jerusalem, whose sons had gone off and were making a business of this, casting out demons? Just a thought in passing. It's interesting, Jesus refers to it, and here we've got a chief priest whose sons are up in Gentile territory, having exorcisms among the Gentiles. And of course, there would be money. Do not get me wrong, there is money in this business. You'll see it here in a moment. Well, one day while they were doing this, these sons were doing this, one day the evil spirit answered them. Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all, all seven of them, maybe anybody else that was with them. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding." Well, everybody hears about this. These were the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. These people had a reputation. Maybe they had a little traveling business or something. When this became known to the Jews and the Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear. and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed, these are the Christians now, many of the Christians, many who believed, now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. We should probably talk to somebody about this. We've been kind of involved in something like this too. Now watch. A number who had practiced sorcery, a number of what? A number of the believers who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. Now this is not about burning books, this is about burning witchcraft incantations that the believers were messing with, trying to manipulate the spiritual world. Now watch this. When they calculated the number of the scrolls, somebody's counting the money involved here, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. Oh wow, that's a lot of money. Well a drachma was a day's wage. So you'd figure 50,000 days of wages. That's a lot of money. It figures today to be about two and a half million dollars, I believe, in scrolls. A total came to 50,000 drachmas. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Now, I do want you to see what's taking place here. Paul is preaching in the lecture hall every day for a couple of hours. The people are coming and listening. God is following that with signs and wonders, if you would, but the Word of God is spreading. Paul is not protesting sorcery. I'm not sure what he's preaching, but I think Paul's got a lot to teach other than just having lecture after lecture about how evil sorcerers are. I'm sure he mentioned it. He's not preaching against the Temple of Artemis or Diana. He's preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not picketing. He's not out doing all these different things. He's simply teaching, teaching, teaching the people who are believers, and these things are happening, and the people are responding. Now watch this. This is going to turn this city upside down. There's 250,000 people in this city. Not a small group of them are Christians now or believers. This church is growing huge. Timothy is going to become the pastor of this church. John the Apostle, around 66 AD, as the Roman armies are approaching, he's going to listen to Jesus' words when Jesus says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by the armies, get out of town because its destruction is coming. And John is going to come and settle in Ephesus, where he's going to end up writing 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. This is what John takes over in the 2nd generation of church history, and writes 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, writes the Gospel of John in 85 AD, and then ends up on the Isle of Patmos, which is right here. It's hard to believe that John is on the Isle of Patmos before 66 AD. While he's in Jerusalem, before Jerusalem is right, that the Romans kind of drag him out of Jerusalem and put him on the Isle of Patmos. Kind of hard to imagine. Some people would have us believe that. But John is going to come from Ephesus and be put on this Isle of Patmos much later. But nonetheless, this is a huge church. Now watch this. Paul is just teaching. Verse 21. After all this happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem. Passing through Macedonia. Am I lost here? After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem. Passing through Macedonia and Achaia. After I had been there, he said, I must visit Rome also. I told you he was going to mention Rome. I must go to Rome. He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, okay, that's the city public works guy's name we found engraved in the streets, to Macedonia while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. So Paul says right here, I want to go to Jerusalem, but he's going to stay in Ephesus a little longer, he's going to send some guys up through Troy to Macedonia, and they're going to end up over here in Corcoran, but he's going to come to Corcoran in just a little bit. And remember, during this whole time he's writing, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Corinthians. We call them 1st and 2nd Corinthians. He's going to stay a little longer. You almost wonder if he should have left what he did because watch what takes place. Verse 23, About that time there arose a great disturbance about the way. Indeed, the way, Christianity, is just changing this culture. It's affecting the economy. It's affecting the jobs that are being offered. When the economy starts to go down, people are burning witchcraft books. You know, it's like, someone was buying them a week ago, now they're burning them. They don't want them any longer. That affects the job market. The Temple of Artemis, all of a sudden, there's more Christians hanging around the temple than there are, you know, in the local area, than there are people who worship Artemis. So now the business of selling little golden and silver statues is going down. Tourists are coming. People are being laid off. Tourists are being distracted by the Christians. The culture's changing. And some people do not like that. There arose a disturbance about the way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsman." Again, I don't want to be redundant here, but the name Demetrius was found around the 1890s in Ephesus, and he is described as being a temple warden for Artemis, and in charge of part of the shrine. Indeed, the name Demetrius is a popular name at this time, but because of his name, his city, and his occupation lines up with the inscription, we may have found something that lines up with this also in Ephesus. Again, running no little business. He called them together, all the craftsmen from his guild, along with the workmen in a related trade, and said, Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. Okay, yeah, it's about money. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray a large number of peoples here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. Again, notice right here, they're not saying yet that Paul is out trying to destroy Artemis worship. Paul's ministry is not, I'm going to stop the worship of Artemis in Ephesus. He's just bringing Jesus Christ to the city of Ephesus. And the people are changing. But nonetheless, it's affecting their business. He says, they say, Paul says, that man-made gods are no gods at all. Okay, I can see Paul saying that. In fact, we've got recordings of him writing that. There is danger, not only that our trade will lose its good name, meaning we'll lose business and we'll have to get a different job, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited. And when the temple is discredited, there goes the tourism. And the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty, not to mention will lose out on a lot of tourists and sales. Verse 28, When they heard this, they were furious, the people that he called in from the trade business, and began shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! A big mob shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Eris, Aristarchus. Aristarchus is from Thessalonica and Gaius would be from Corinth. Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia and rushed as one man into the theater. They wanted to appear before the crowd. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd. He wanted to go out there and address the crowd. He's going to do this in Jerusalem. But the disciples would not let him. They won't let Paul out because he wants to go talk and he'll get crushed. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, notice, some of the officials, the Roman leaders, who had become friends of Paul, which means they may be believers, they sent a message, don't let Paul go out there, because we know, first thing Paul's going to want to do is go out there and talk with them. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. And again, all these places, the theater here, these things have been excavated, along with the temple. The assembly was in confusion. Some were shouting one thing, some another. Now you understand what's taking place right here. They couldn't, it was unraveling. So they start a mob, they get things confused, and now they're just shouting. They're having a riot. Some were shouting one thing and some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. Does that sound like America today? It's like, we're just upset. What are you upset about? Well, I heard, well, you know, it's like you got about three percent of people know what's going on and if you can get the masses in revolt on your side, they don't even need to know if I was there in revolt. We don't even know why we're here, but we're upset. We're mad. Okay. didn't even know why they were there. Verse 33, the Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. He's going to try and reason with the mob. Okay, that's a good idea. They don't even know why they're mad, but you're going to reason them out of their madness. Well, if they don't know why they're mad, your reasoning can't make sense to them. But when they realized he was a Jew, okay, now they realize, well, he's a Jew. They all shouted in unison for about two hours, Great is Artemus of the Ephesians! That's really going to be productive. Two hours of shouting. The city clerk quieted the crowd and said after two hours, now this makes some sense. He's not even going to address the issue of Artemus because he can't even go there. He's going to appeal to their idea that we're going to get in trouble. Men of Ephesus. And remember, this is Ephesus. Rome controls all of this. And there is someone over here with a big club called Rome. And just like Philippi, they got scared because Rome could come in and take away our city. Ephesus, here they go. Men of Ephesus. Doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image which fell from heaven? There was in the Temple of Artemis, there's this image that supposedly had fallen from heaven that they went and worshipped. We can study about that sometime. Just remember, something had fallen from heaven that they worshipped. As they thought, it's like a meteor or something. Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, we have the rock that fell from heaven and no one else does, you ought to be quiet and not to do anything rash. You have brought these men here though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our God." Notice right there, they can say, he can stand in front of the crowd and say, Paul has not blasphemed our God. He is not out trying to tear down our God. If then Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance, again Demetrius is the guy who started this riot, he's losing money, losing business. If they have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are pro-consuls. We will take it to court. Now realize, this event, I believe as we go through this, this event, Demetrius is not going to let it go. Paul is going to get put in prison for a riot down here. He's going to go to Rome, and he's going to be in Rome for a couple of years. He's going to be released from that imprisonment, and he's going to travel again. But he's going to end up in prison again in the book of 2 Timothy. And that time, Demetrius' name is brought up again. It appears that Demetrius is going to pursue this until Paul is executed by Nero. And we'll see that develop as we go through Paul's life. Verse 38, I'm about done. If then Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. Now you may find that word interesting. A legal assembly. That is the word ecclesia. Ecclesia is the word always translated church. It's the word that Jesus used, Paul used. It's a gathering of people that have been taken out of a group to represent or to meet for the well-being of the group. It's a political gathering, not a political gathering. It's a public gathering of people in a group. So again, in a legal assembly, in a legal ecclesia, and that's where the word church comes from. It comes from that culture of a group meeting together of a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today's events. In that case, we would not be able to account for this commotion since there is no reason for it at all. What are we here for? They're not temple robbers. They're not blasphemers. You're just in there having a riot with no direction. We will get in trouble. If you have an issue, take the court and we will pursue it. After he said this, he dismissed the assembly and it was over. Verse 20, when the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. Now this is where I said, he's looking for Titus, he goes up to Macedonia, and he's going to meet Titus in Macedonia, that's referred to in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and right after this event he's going to write 2nd Corinthians, and he's going to write stuff about, he said, we faced wild beasts in Ephesus for nothing, He says, what is the point? He says, there's something more here than us just suffering. Again, facing wild animals in Ephesus may not have been him being thrown into a Colosseum to face wild animals, but it may have been this event right here. Just keep that in mind. Verse 2, he traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece. He travels through Macedonia, speaking to all the churches, and finally arrives in Greece, or Corinth, where he stayed three months because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria. So now when he comes down here, that is when he comes to visit the church. Now he writes the Book of Romans to the Church of Rome and says, I want to come there and visit you. So during that three months, he writes the Book of Romans. When he's about to sail for Syria, they make a plan for him. He decided to go back through Macedonia. He goes back up this way, like I said, while his friends go through right up to Troas. He was accompanied by, now here we go, a big list. We'll pick this up next week. A list of people who you've heard a lot of them before. He catches up with them at Troas. Then he sails, continues to talk about it. He meets with this church in Ephesus. I'm running out of steam because I've got to quit. But now, on his way back, he's going to meet the elders of Ephesus, and he's going to have one of the best messages to church leadership that's recorded in Scripture right here. Then he's going to sail down here, and on this trip down here, he's going to be told about four or five times, don't go, don't go, don't go, don't go to Jerusalem. And it's going to be the Spirit of God telling him. And he goes to Jerusalem, and when he walks in Jerusalem, he goes to the temple, he gets arrested and never gets to preach the Gospel to the Jews, and ends up in prison for about five years. Well, hey, we're making our way through the Book of Acts. Thank you so much for being patient. I will pray, and if you have any questions, please feel free. Tony, any announcements or anything? Okay, thank you very much for being here. Father, we do thank you for your truth. We thank you for your word. We ask that we may again apply it to our lives, that we may have understanding in it. I ask that you help us impact our culture the way Paul impacted his culture and the people impacted the culture. We ask that we may have truth in our lives, that we may spread truth to other people, that we may walk in the light as you are in the light. Again, we give you praise for the good things you've done for us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, thank you very much for being here. Thanks for coming.